Live Conflict Ukraine-Russia War

Spitfire9 · Wednesday at 11:10 AM

Things are not really going Putin's way in Ukraine.

Sergei Chemezov, head of state defense corporation Rostec, has twice publicly threatened to cease arms exports due to the high cost of borrowing. And a third of Russian freight haulers have said they fear bankruptcy next year due to increased costs and rates. Andrei Repik, head of the Delovaya Rossiya lobby group, last month warned of “guaranteed bankruptcies” among businesses.

The Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecast, a think tank that has long opposed high interest rates and which has connections to Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, recently reached the counterintuitive conclusion that high rates are driving inflation more than increased salaries. Almost 19% of the economy (when measured by revenue) is threatened with bankruptcy due to interest rate rises next year, it said

https://en.thebell.io/tough-choices-for ... tral-bank/

Consumer spending has been partially maintained through the government indirectly transferring money from the national wealth fund into consumers' pockets via high wages in the MIC (forcing labour costs up in other sectors of the economy), 'golden hellos' to contract soldiers, high salaries for contract soldiers, death and injury payments to soldiers and their families.

Through the 'special military operation' the Russian government has set the country on a downward economic and financial course. Where are the signs that the government is going to change the course of the country's economy? I see none.

I think that the longer the Ukraine military can hang on, inflicting unsustainable losses of men and equipment on the enemy as it advances, the less viable it will become economically, financially and militarily for Russia to persist with the war. I think that Putin must now be gambling everything on Trump halting the war before the wheels come off Russia. If the war continues, what does the future hold for Vladimir?

PS Any guesses on what will happen to interest rates on 20 December? The central bank has a meeting at which it may change the base rate,.

Soldier30 · Thursday at 8:25 AM

The first real North Korean 170-mm M1989 Koksan self-propelled guns were recorded by eyewitnesses on one of the military trains in Russia. There is little information about the M-1989 Koksan self-propelled guns; they were created in the 1970s on the chassis of T-54, T-62 or Type 59 tanks. With a 170-mm gun, more than 58 calibers long, the M1989 DPRK self-propelled gun can fire shells at a range of up to 40 km, and active-rocket projectiles at a range of up to 60 km.

blackjack · 2024-12-20T07:07:04-0600

Soldier30 · 2024-12-20T07:46:49-0600

Russian sappers of the Karbyshev engineering battalion have started using FPV drones for mining and demining in Ukraine. The video shows the installation of POM-2 mines and demining using a Russian FPV drone. POM-2 anti-personnel fragmentation mines were developed in the 1980s in the USSR. The POM-2 mine family includes several types of ammunition, the mine weighs 1,500 grams, the amount of explosive is 140 grams, and the radius of continuous destruction is 16 meters. The POM-2 mine explodes after touching one of four nylon threads 10 meters long. The POM-2 mine is not extractable or neutralized, it self-destructs after a period of time, from 4 to 100 hours. The radius of destruction of the POM-2 mine is 16 meters.

Spitfire9 · 2024-12-20T11:51:59-0600

In my opinion things are not going too well for Russia at the moment.

A brief insight into some of its economic problems:

How things are going on the battlefield:

Russia has been advancing much more quickly recently. At this increased pace, Russia will still take over 50 more years to occupy the rest of Ukraine. There is an increased cost in men and materiel in advancing more quickly. Ukraine claims the highest number of Russian troop losses ever in one day: 2,200

Sorry, I don't post video of a few Russian or Ukrainian tanks, APC's etc being destroyed or troops being killed because IMO they are not relevant to the outcome of the war. Boring old politics and economics will decide the outcome of the war.

Relic · 2024-12-20T16:16:36-0600

Multiple sources are reporting that the incoming Trump Government has promised continued U.S. military and economic aid for Ukraine, pending an an agreement by Europe to increase their own military spending to better prepared for war. Initially the Trump Government is requesting that EU countries spend 5% of their GDP on their the military, however, anonymous sources are reporting that the actual number they are seeking is 3%-3.5%, which would roughly match U.S. military spending.